My friend Phil Eisenbeiss – a long time Hong Kong resident with a great passion for Italian Opera – is going to present his latest book on the 15 of November 2013, at Sicis’s showroom, Wanchai. It is a biographical narrative of the life and times of Domenico Barbaja, a great Opera impresario, born into a humble family in a poor village near Milano. With the strength of his intelligence and hard work, he became one of the greatest Opera entrepreneurs of all times. He was a sort of archetypal Milanese, a self made man, passionate, moved by his instinct, generous, but also a bit of a bully to get things done his own way, and not shy to admit his cultural shortcomings. He was often signing himself as Barbaja the Beast!

It is curious to see how we Italians tend to forget great men like Barbaja who had greatly enriched our Country, until there is a foreigner pointing them to us. No one before Philip had thought about writing a biography of Barbaja.

This is a very readable & enjoyable book full of history, culture, music, passion, art, that should not be missed by all Italians as well as Opera lovers living in Hong Kong.

There is no fee involved for joining, just book through The Dante Alighieri Society of Hong Kong, the organizers of this event. Wonderful wine and snacks will be available free of charge. What else do we want?

You may then go home with a copy of an hardback copy, full of illustrations, signed ad personam by Philip.

Philip Eisenbeiss

ANGELO PARATICO studied textile chemistry and then worked in several textile mills before becoming a salesman of textile machinery in South East Asia. When China opened up, so to speak, in the early eighties he moved to Hong Kong setting his base there. First he had a wife from Hong Kong, two wonderful children, then a second wife from Verona, Donatella Oliboni. He has been living since 1983 in Hong Kong with his family. He freelances with several newspapers in Italy, and with The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.